Bluesound Vault 2i died

Yes, the "red light of death" issue did also affect the Bluesound Vault units. 

Both the Bluesound Node 2 and Bluesound Vault 2 / 2i shares a highly similar internal architecture. They suffer from the exact same hardware vulnerability regarding their internal Power Supply Units (PSUs).

The Root Cause of the Failure

• Heat Degradation: Both devices suffer from poor internal ventilation. The physical layout places crucial electrolytic capacitors right next to hot components like transistors and transformers. Over time, this intense heat dries out the capacitors. 
• Power Under-Provisioning: In Vault units, the power board faces an even higher load because it has to power an internal mechanical hard disk drive (HDD). Once the capacitors begin to degrade and voltage drops, the unit can no longer sustain power to the drive.
• The Symptom: This failure triggers a solid or slowly cycling red light, rendering the device completely unresponsive. It will no longer boot, complete firmware updates, or accept a factory reset.

Symptoms and Workarounds for Vault Owners

If a Vault unit is suffering from this issue, the community and independent repair technicians have noted a few specific patterns:

• The HDD Power Trick: Some users have discovered that the red light on a dead Vault only triggers when the internal hard drive draws power from the board. Unplugging the internal SATA power cable and routing power to the drive via an external power supply or dock has successfully revived some units.
• Capacitor Replacement: Because Bluesound generally charges a high fee to service out-of-warranty units, many users opt to have a local technician replace the dried-out capacitors on the power board with higher-quality, 105°C-rated alternatives.
• SSD Upgrades: To permanently lower internal temperatures after a repair, some owners swap out the hot, power-hungry internal 3.5" HDD for a cooler, low-power 2.5" SSD

Hi , sorry for the loss of your streamer. I do not have your device so my input is limited. As mentioned above and on AI , you can try the hard factory reset in the startup process and probably lose your files. Maybe someone that specializes in upgrading the power supply can solve the problem, at least it’s small enough to mail. With your location ( I’m so envious) there has to be someone in Denver that can repair/upgrade. My other thought is you now are forced to upgrade and maybe look at used Innuos Zen series. You have a nice system and a better streamer should yield improved sound. FWIT off topic the Tekton Moab’s were recommended to me by Terry London and I chickened out and bought the DI’s last summer. I was concerned about the wife factor and in retrospect should have purchased the Moab’s. What I wound up doing was taking the cost difference and purchased a pair of Townshend Seismic Podiums and WOW what an improvement ! I use a Innuos Pulse Mini with an aftermarket LPS and it sounds pretty good , so again consider something in the Innuos Zen line used. Regards , Mike B. 

I hate to hear this.  I also have a Bluesound Vault 2i, purchased in 2020 or 2021.  I haven’t had any problems with it, but I also don’t use it much.  Knowing that hard drives can fail, I bought a solid state drive to backup the content on the Vault 2i.  I also have a fair amount of the music on desktop and laptop computers.  I’m sorry to hear you are having this problem.  Seems like Bluesound would want to improve reliability, as a reputation for failure would not be good for sales, I would guess.  

Thank you all for your input. Lesson learned- back up the content. Sounds like a capacitor replacement might be needed. Bluesound did give me a couple of repair contacts so I'll start there and see what it costs. Then I may start looking alternatives since I won't be purchasing another Bluesound product. I'll look at the Innuos and likely others

I had the same issue with the Vault2 many years ago, when it was slightly out of warranty.  I had backed up the files to a Synology NAS, which I subsequently backed up to my Melco N 100.  The Synology also failed soon after I had completed that backup.  I backed up the Melco but it has worked flawlessly.

  My only complaint about the Melco was as a player I wasn’t crazy about the app, which is basically mConnect.  I subsequently added a Cambridge Audio CXN 60 which added AirPlay, Chromecast, and Internet/Radio and Podcasts.  All sources feed a Bryston DAC3 and I have been very happy for several years.  mConnect has since updated the functionality of its app but I have just stuck with the CA.

  Bluesound products are poorly made, imo.  I always recommend people new to streaming start with Wiim products as players and if they want to stream a library of ripped albums pick a NAS that will work with any player.  I am biased towards Melco as a NAS but recently attached a back up HD from 10 years ago by USB to my Cambridge and it played flawlessly using the Stream Magic app.

  In this case the OP isn’t new to streaming so I’d skip the Wiim but again pick a NAS that is independent of the streamer